


What's up?

by liten_blom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Episode: s01e01 The Rise of Voltron, Galaxy Garrison, Gen, M/M, Not Beta Read, Pre-Canon, Songfic, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 09:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19082323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liten_blom/pseuds/liten_blom
Summary: They don't know yet.Of the family they'll find,of the adventures they'll have,of the sacrifices that will have to be made.They don't know yet.And that's alright.





	What's up?

**Author's Note:**

> I recently got a twitter writing acc, and people over there were depressed over the end of Voltron, and it got me depressed too, and I wanted to cheer myself up by listening to music but shuffle presented me with "What's up" by 4 Non Blondes and I ended up getting even more depressed because of Sense8, can you feel my pain?  
> I do recommend listening to the song while reading, in particular to the video I listened to while writing, which you'll reach by using the link attached in the title.  
> Enjoy, darlings, and don't be afraid to leave comments or constructive criticism<3

**[What's Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp2JuY5eAVo) **

It’s just. Lance wants to be a a pilot so bad, and of course he’s also passed all the necessary tests to the Garrison or else he wouldn’t be studying there, but sometimes he just finds himself wondering if he’s even on the same level as the other cadets.

His scores were good enough to enter the Garrison, but apparently not enough to be placed in fighter pilot class. For the second year in a row.

That’s the reason why he can’t sleep now, on the last night in Cuba before he has to go back to school. He spent the whole break worrying over this, ignoring Veronica and his mom’s lectures about knowing his own worth and other such things, and turning the idea of dropping out over and over in his head.

That’s also the reason why he couldn’t stand being inside the house on his last day and decided to spend it on the beach, with only his _abuelo_ ’s old guitar as his company. So here Lance is tonight, sat on the sand and looking up at the sky at all the pretty stars and planets he wants to be able to reach one day.

Honestly, Lance doesn’t even _know_ what he wants to do in the future anymore, but what he knows is that his hands are itching to pinch the strings of the guitar.

That’s at least one thing he’s sure of being good at.

_Twenty five years and my life is still_

_Trying to get up that great big hill of hope_

_For a destination_

*****

“It can’t be, they _must_ have left some kind of trace on the mission.”

Her mom hasn’t left the bedroom in two days.

She’s a strong woman, always has been, but the loss of both Sam _and_ Matt has been able to bend even her, to make her avoid her own daughter’s eyes because too similar to that of her brother and father.

In the silence of her room, with only a cold cup of coffee and her own ramblings keeping her company, Katie feels like she’s slowly going insane. She can’t find anything on her brother but she _knows_ that usually government agencies leave a trace, even if faint, of their logs. But the Kerberos mission? It’s as if the ship never existed in the first place, much less that it actually breached the atmosphere of Pluto’s moon, with the crew still alive inside of it.

She is aware of her own abilities, and just _knows_ that soon she will be right into the Garrison’s – frankly laughable - web system, and grumpily pulls up a new tab on her computer, linking to her playlist and getting ready for a long, long night.

She knows they are not dead, feels it in her bones that the Garrison is hiding something about the mission.

_Matt, dad, I’ll find you._

_I realized quickly when I knew I should_

_That the world was made up of this brotherhood of man_

_For whatever that means_

*****

They threw him out.

Well, technically he ran before they could actually file the official papers.

Still, Adam’s pleas served nothing in the end, and as much as he loves the man and considers him a brother along with… with Shiro, Keith can’t bring himself to feel sorry for leaving. The Garrison is hiding something about Shiro’s death, he’s sure. He can’t prove it, not yet, but he just _knows_. He knows that Shiro is not dead, and neither are Doctor Holt and his son. Adam is wrong, and he’ll prove it.

He’ll bring Shiro back and maybe, _maybe_ , those two dumbasses will solve their problems and finally get the wedding they deserve.

Keith will make sure of it. That’s why he finds himself in his father’s old shack in the desert, not too far away from the base so that he’s still in range to contact Adam but far enough to not be found and arrested for having attacked Commander Iverson.

He owes it to Shiro to find him, he thinks as he turns on the old radio he repaired, he owes it to the man who never gave up on him, who offered him a second chance instead of kicking him aside at the first occasion like so many people did before him. He knows the Garrison lied about the mission, and he’s positively _sure_ it has something to do with the feeling that has drawn him out here in the desert.

He huffs when he catches a good music station, letting an old song that Adam used to love wash over him as he focuses on looking through the files he was able to steal from the base, humming along.

_And so I cry sometimes_

_When I'm lying in bed_

_Just to get it all out_

_What's in my head_

_And I, I’m feeling_

_A little peculiar_

*****

Shiro used to joke that his hair was going to turn white early from stress, and Adam would always laugh at him and play along, saying that he would still marry him, even if he looked like a grumpy old man.

Shiro misses him.

He misses him so much, and he never got to say a proper goodbye to him, nor did he try and mend things after their break up.

He’s going to die with a lot of regrets because of his stubborn pride, he knows it.

And as a guard comes fetch him, saying that _Lady Haggar_ wants to see him, he knows bad things are going to happen. He got hit pretty bad during the last fight, because his muscles were acting up, and now the witch apparently wants to _fix_ him.

Maybe she’ll actually see that Shiro’s only wasting away and will finally put him out of his misery.

He doesn’t want to be ” _The Champion_ ”, he thinks as the guards escort him, doesn’t want to fight other innocent aliens, doesn’t want to _kill_ them, doesn’t want to deprive them of the chance of going back to their own homes, to their own families, like he so desperately wants to.

And that’s the point, isn’t it?

It’s either him, or them.

That thought has a vice tightening around his heart.

And then, as the witch forces him down, down, to lay on the only cot in the room, an old song comes to mind, one that Adam used to hum while in the kitchen, cooking for both themselves and the wild boy Shiro brought home one day, or whenever Shiro’s cramps were bad, as he massaged his sore muscles while lying in bed together.

It always used to lift Shiro’s mood, when he heard his beloved’s soft baritone intoning that piece, so he tries doing the same.

As the witch and guards surround him, and put him to sleep to ready him for surgery, he hums.

_And I try_

_Oh my god do I try_

_I try all the time_

_In this institution_

*****

He tightens the last bolt in place and passes on to the small circuits on the side of the broken device.

Hunk’s hands are big, and strong. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t hold the smallest and most fragile piece of machinery without causing damage. His patience is also to thank for that, because without it, he would possibly be a nervous mess and drop everything passed to him during his usual engineering sprees.

(Well, he _can_ be a nervous mess during those too, but that only applies when he’s being judged for his work.)

He fixes up the last circuit, cleans up everything, and heads into the kitchen. He places the device on the counter, where it silently stares at him.

He feels… content, he guesses. He studies – on a scholarship for merit, might he add – at the Garrison, one of the best engineering faculty of the country, _of course_ he is.

But. Studying overseas requires a lot. It means, for him, leaving his parents alone during each semester, with only their cat as company, in an otherwise empty house. And that’s something he definitely doesn’t like. They said that it’s okay, that they’ll be more than fine, but that doesn’t help matters at all.

It doesn’t help in keeping away from Hunk’s mind all stray thoughts of anything happening to his family. Thoughts that unfortunately pop up during class hours, during simulations, worsening his already there anxiety.

And he loves engineering, really, _he does_ , but when things like these happen, and he ends up being yelled at by the Commanders, he can’t help but think that maybe, maybe he isn’t cut out for this place. He hasn’t made any friends yet, and he’s not good enough to stand out in the field he chose, so why should he stay?

He sighs, as he tunes up his ma’s newly fixed radio and starts getting the ingrendients for _crème brulée_ out of the cupboards.

He’ll stay one semester still. One last semester, and then, if nothing happens, he’ll sign the papers and drop out of the Garrison.

(He lowkey wishes something _will_ happen.)

_And I pray_

_Oh my god do I pray_

_I pray every single day_

_*_

Inside ice coffins, Allura and Coran dream.

They dream of Altea.

No, not the ball of fire it was when they last saw it.

They remember it for what it was thousand and thousand of years ago, with its juniberry fields, its cosmopolitan cities as perfect places to have people from different parts of different galaxies meet eachother, exchanging foods, languages, cultures. The Castle of Lions, always full of people, full of _life_ , always welcoming those who asked for help.

They don’t know yet, but that is all over.

It’s all over and Altea is _gone_.

But there’s other things that they do not know.

They do not know about Voltron, of how Alfor was able to save the Lions from Zarkon’s hands, of how they are only waiting for the last of Alteans to wake.

They do not know of the amazing people, amazing   _friends_ , they’ll meet, of how they will become family, of the adventures they will have together throughout all of space, of how their actions will save lives, _entire populations_ , of how they’ll become a beacon of hope during dark times.

They do not know of the sacrifices that will have to be made either, but that is alright.

They are safe for now, thanks to a father’s love, a father who _knew_ his daughter would be in his friend’s good hands once awoken.

They are safe, and ready to take on the world that awaits for them out there.

_For a revolution_

**Author's Note:**

> Voltron isn’t gone. Voltron is within each and every one of us. We’re bonded to it, and to each other.


End file.
